College calculator is wanting

With my 17-year-old daughter headed to college, I tried out the new college scorecard tool launched by the Obama administration after the president's State of the Union address.

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By Michelle Singletary

recordnet.com

By Michelle Singletary

Posted Feb. 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Michelle Singletary
Posted Feb. 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

With my 17-year-old daughter headed to college, I tried out the new college scorecard tool launched by the Obama administration after the president's State of the Union address.

I was not impressed. Some links didn't work, and certain information I wanted wasn't there. Overall, the tool just didn't add much value to help our family figure out which college would be the most affordable.

The tool, which you can find at whitehouse.gov, is too general when it comes to the final price of college.

Designed by the Department of Education, the scorecard includes the average net price data for in-state students, the school's graduation rate, loan default rates and median borrowing. Oh, and the data used for the average net price are for the 2010-11 academic year.

Honestly, given what I've been experiencing and after talking to numerous other parents, the college scorecard doesn't address our most pressing needs. What would help more would be an intensive effort by the administration to bring down the cost of college so families wouldn't have to borrow so heavily.

My daughter Olivia, who has excellent grades, applied to four colleges - two in-state schools and two out of state. She was accepted at North Carolina A&T, Towson University and the Honors College at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill turned her down. The UNC rejection notice was nice enough. "With many more candidates than spaces, we cannot avoid making thousands of difficult decisions," the vice provost wrote.

My heart sunk when Olivia didn't get into UNC. But the penny-pincher in me was jumping for joy. We've saved for her education, but not enough to pay the $43,848 annual out-of-state price for UNC.

Across the country, families are now waiting for their letters that lay out how much money their kids might get to finance their educations.

A useful tool I'm looking forward to is one the administration previously announced, a financial aid shopping sheet. The administration has gotten more than 600 colleges to agree to provide important financial information to incoming freshmen starting with the 2013-14 school year. As part of their financial aid packages, the schools said they would disclose these key pieces of information: They will be clearer about how much one year of college will cost; they will provide a better distinction between grants, scholarships and loans; they will provide estimated monthly payments for the federal student loans that graduates will likely owe; and they will supply information about the percentages of students who enroll from one year to the next, graduate and repay their loans without defaulting.

The shopping sheet is a tool the administration should demand that colleges provide. Right now, it's only voluntary.

Contact Michelle Singletary, a personal finance columnist at The Washington Post, at singletarym@washpost.com.